Samantha Stosur Takes New York

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How on earth did she do that?

Yes, we knew Samantha Stosur had Grand Slam champion potential, having reached the final at Roland Garros in 2010 and losing - as the favorite - to Francesca Schiavone. And we knew that with her muscular, top-spin based game she was a difficult match-up for Dai-Yokozuna (=great Grand Champion) Serena Williams. But beating this Serena Williams, who had come back from long-term injury with renewed intensity and force? Who had outclassed Stosur only a month ago in Toronto? Who had rushed through the tournament toying with her opponents almost at will? And beating her 6-2, 6-3?

But here she is: Sam Stosur, having crushed the arguably greatest female player of her generation, and winning her first grand slam title at the age of 27. Stosur dominated for most of the match - only at the beginning at the second set, when Serena set some energy free after getting into a dispute with the chair umpire, did it look for a moment as if the match could move away from Stosur. But the Australian kept her composure, and outmuscled, outpressured Williams until the latter crumbled - a feat few players have done with a healthy Serena since the latter broke through into world class some 10 years ago.

Stosur gets re-promoted to Sekiwake (=Junior Champion I) as a result, and rank she held already in 2010. She would make it even to Ozeki (=Champion) if she reached the quarterfinal at her home slam down under - something she has not managed to do thus far, however. Serena reactivates her Yokozuna status, after a layoff of almost a year.

With the Yokozuna Serena, her sister Venus and Kim Clijsters absent for much of the year, this grand slam season has seen much variation in the ladies' game. Clijsters, Na Li, Petra Kvitova, and now Stosur won the big titles. With the exception of Kvitova, these are all ladies in an advanced tennis age.

Below are the ladies' sanyaku ranked players going into the Australian Open 2012. No less than 11 female players hold sanyaku rank at this juncture, showing how spread out over many shoulders success has been recently in the ladies' game (compare this to just 6 male sanyaku ranked players). At this tournament, surprise semfinalist Angelique Kerber and repeat quarterfinalist (after the French Open 2011) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova earned career-first Komusubi (=Junior Champion II) promotions - they are the 58th and 59th female Komusubi of the open era.

Women

Career rank 1/	East	Current Rank	West	Career rank 1/
High Sanyaku (Senior Champion Ranks)
Y	Serena Williams	Y	Kim Clijsters	Y
Y	Venus Williams	Y(ia)	-	-
O	Maria Sharapova*	O	-	-
Lower Sanyaku (Junior Champion Ranks)
O	Na Li	S1	Vera Zvonareva	O
S	Samantha Stosur	S2	-	-
S	Petra Kvitova	K1	Marion Bartoli	S
S	Caroline Wozniacki	K2	Angelique Kerber	K
K	Andrea Petkovic	K3	Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova	K

1/ Highest sanyaku rank achieved in a player's career
(ia) inactive
* kadoban